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“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” – Bill Hicks

Of course this exists. It's the same idiots who ask why there's no WET or Straight Pride Parade.

Now, that's not to say that there aren't issues in society with men being repressed in certain situations. Men have a serious disadvantage when it comes to custody (which I think is a load of crap - it should primarily be about who is the better parent/will take better care of the child), expectations from society (which may not be as bad as they are for women, but still do exist), and more. I have a friend who's very vocal regarding absolute equality between the sexes, and he talks just as much about men's rights as women's. He kinda opened my eyes to this stuff.

I mean I feel at times feminism takes things too far or in weird directions, which is frustrating, but on the other hand the term "men's rights" makes me cringe.

I used to hate the term "rape culture" because it was rarely defined, and thus as a criticism impossible to refute. (It is a vague term because culture has no single definition, and rape culture has no supporters or proponents, you know, like other obvious and recognizable cultures. Even gun culture, which is a negative term.) Though I read a definition recently that made a lot of sense (replace rape with rain, and if the story is still coherent, that's rape culture.) I guess I just think the term culture is being misused or poorly defined. I think a large problem is that proponents of sometimes complicated ideas within feminism (though definitely not exclusive to feminism) feel they shouldn't have to explain or define things for fear of seeming condescending, or perhaps because of the belief that it should be obvious. I don't know why, thats just a feeling.

I think people just bring out ridiculous insecurities whenever gender debates happen. Its easy to extrapolate what the other person is saying into a worst case scenario situation. Its very similar to the male circumcision debate, which doesn't even deserve the term "debate." Its just so insecure to assume its a zero sum game where +1 to one side = -1 to the other side. And really, that doesn't make sense. Though I agree with Llamas, it seems obvious that we should work on improving equality (different wages for the same job, as a thing that still exists, blows my mind. That should be super embarrassing.) improving equality while making sure males don't fall behind. (This is a failing of the Danish primary school educations, which made a concerted and succesful effort to improve education with girls, but now boys are falling way behind. Its rather depressing because this seems to imply that it might be wise to have gender segregated classrooms, which seems really backwards.)

Next week, I'll discuss how tv is rotting kids brains, and why things were better in the olden days. Grrr!! I should also point out that I live in a culture with no real concept of political correctness, so I'm way out of my league here.

One last thing, I also feel like we too easily give every single opinion validation. Just because an opinion has feminist or equality trappings doesn't mean you should pay it any attention. An obvious example is the "Men's Rights Movement." But I also feel like this over-focus on children's toys is a bit much as well. We are a fairly progressive generation that had some obviously gender-biased toys, we didn't all end up as sexist or confused. Really we should just let kids play with what they want, colors aren't that important to kids yet. Again though, I grew up in hippy central so my perspective might be skewed, we played across gender biased toys in kindergarten. Barbie was rather boring, but Polly Pocket was fascinating. So was Mighty Max, but that definitely came out later. I guess what I'm saying is, is that everyone should use the Eugene, Oregon model of child-raising. It makes the gender debates of inferior cultures confusing. Man I suck at making points.

I think a large problem is that proponents of sometimes complicated ideas within feminism (though definitely not exclusive to feminism) feel they shouldn't have to explain or define things for fear of seeming condescending, or perhaps because of the belief that it should be obvious. I don't know why, thats just a feeling.

You're completely correct. That's actually common amongst activists, according to an activist I was chatting with just the other day. They become frustrated by the burden of having to constantly explain what they feel is obvious. I argued, of course, that it will always be their burden as long as they wish to help create a better society. If they refuse the burden then they're just a bunch of whiners. I probably put it marginally more tactfully, however.

Originally Posted by wheelchairman

Though I read a definition recently that made a lot of sense (replace rape with rain, and if the story is still coherent, that's rape culture.)

I believe that was mentioned in the cracked.com article I posted regarding sexism in gaming.

“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” – Bill Hicks

I must be a strong, empowered modern man because this makes me misty eyed.

I think that all emergent activists, particularly feminists (male and female) go through a hoo-rah phase when they grasp the scope of the issues that they never put much thought into the volume of. the same goes for people who come out of the closet. almost all of my friends who weren't always "out" went through a very loud yay-gay phase full of constant rainbow-flag waving and prefacing everything with "queer" or "lgbt". I remember going through THE MOST obnoxious feminist phase when I was first made aware of sexism in the media (ie. a strong woman in a movie is never an intellectual, always a fucktoy with a gun wearing a transparent wifebeater). I wish all causes were represented by people who have had time to mellow out and learn some communication/critical listening skills.